The line ‘fair is foul, and foul is fair’ uttered by the three witches in the first scene strikes the keynote of the drama Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The witches are the personified forces of disorder and conflict. They speak in the enigmatic language. The witches are the anomalies of nature. All that is good is loathsome to the witches and all that is evil is welcome to them. It has a symbolic meaning. The witches can not do well; evil is the very core of their existence. They have the power to turn good into evil. They use their power and influence for disorder and confusion in the mortal world. They introduce us to the world of topsy-turvy where values are perverted and reversed. The Macbeth world is a strange one where the good things are decaying and ‘night’s black agents’ do rouse. Finally, these words illuminate the character of the witches. They are “the lawless of human nature” (Coleridge).
Explain the line ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ from Macbeth
